The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.

The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.

Date of Patent:
Jan. 31, 2017

Filed:

Jun. 23, 2014
Applicant:

Ultratech, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);

Inventors:

James T. McWhirter, San Jose, CA (US);

Andrew Hawryluk, Los Altos, CA (US);

Serguei Anikitichev, Hayward, CA (US);

Masoud Safa, Cupertino, CA (US);

Assignee:

Ultratech, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 21/26 (2006.01); H01L 21/66 (2006.01); H01L 21/324 (2006.01); B23K 26/00 (2014.01); B23K 26/03 (2006.01); H01L 21/268 (2006.01); H01L 21/67 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 22/26 (2013.01); B23K 26/0042 (2013.01); B23K 26/034 (2013.01); H01L 21/268 (2013.01); H01L 21/324 (2013.01); H01L 22/10 (2013.01); H01L 21/67115 (2013.01); H01L 21/67248 (2013.01);
Abstract

Systems and methods for reducing beam instability in laser annealing are disclosed. The method includes: directing a conditioned laser beam through an opening in an aperture using a beam-redirecting element; forming a line image on the surface of the semiconductor wafer by imaging the aperture onto the surface, thereby locally heating the surface to form an annealing temperature distribution; detecting a thermal emission from the locally heated wafer surface; determining the annealing temperature distribution from the detected thermal emission; determining from the annealing temperature distribution a line-image intensity profile that includes a time-varying amount of slope; and adjusting the beam-redirecting element to redirect the laser beam to reduce or eliminate the time-varying amount of slope in the line-image intensity profile.


Find Patent Forward Citations

Loading…